5.
*Katelyn*
"Enjoy your stay," the desk clerk said in Italian, flashing me that smile that I've always believed is required for hotel staff and camp counselors.
"Thank you, I'm sure I will," I replied in flawless Italian and then followed the guy that was carting my luggage. My plan was to stay in Italy for a few weeks to do my surveillance and then I would strike out. My job would be finished soon enough. Three months before my deadline.
But that's how I did things. That's how I'd always done things. I knew that I was the best and by my actions, everyone else did, too. The bellhop got the things to my room and I tipped him before shutting the door and checking for bugs, first and foremost. When it was clear that there were no bugs, I chose to change into shorts and a tank top, and begin my surveillance of the immediate area. I wouldn't begin tailing Antonio Distefano for another week.
Right before I left, I checked my reflection in the mirror and just looked for a moment. I was thin, but athletic-looking, and my dark brown hair was curly, but in a ponytail. My makeup was dark, but it accented my blue eyes. I was soft and angelic looking, but so dangerous inside.
I left the hotel and walked outside, loving the perfect weather. I'd always loved Italy, actually. In fact, Rider had even suggested that we go to live there and his parents agreed, saying that it would be a good place to live for our first few years as a married couple. That was the thing about Rider and me, though. We wouldn't be able to live in one place for very long because of our jobs. We'd be apart from each other a lot, too. There would be jobs that would separate us for three or four months, maybe even a year, in some special cases.
Rider.
Thinking about him made my head hurt. Sure, he was a really nice guy and we'd known each other for as long as I could remember, but there was just something off when he kissed me…something not quite right. Whenever he held me, I could feel myself aching for something more, I just didn't know what that might be. What was missing? I asked myself that hundreds of times, but I never could seem to come up with an answer.
Asking my mom about it hadn't worked, either. She just said that sometimes love was like that and then she asked for my help with dinner. No one understood. Everybody just expected me to be the happy bride that I was supposed to be. Everyone expected me to be worrying about wedding colors and dresses and all sorts of other things that I didn't care about. I was the type of person that would rather be shot in the foot than plan a wedding.
Regardless, a wedding I was to plan. And soon.
But it still didn't feel quite right.
*Joe*
The streets were busy but still, I walked along, moving expertly through the people as any pavement artist could do. I remembered a time in Italy when Matt had been tailing someone and even though he'd been practically right behind the guy the entire time, he hadn't noticed Matt tailing him. That was true pavement artistry. And Cammie had it, too.
But I didn't think that anyone could beat Katelyn.
Katelyn. Just that one word could stir up thousands of emotions from inside of me until I felt like curling up in a ball under the covers like I used to do when I was four. The memories that she brought… Sometimes they were so powerful that I could feel her hands in my hair or see her smile right in front of me.
Katelyn Alexandra Hunter.
She hated her middle name, she'd told me once. She hadn't ever given me any explanation as to why. Maybe that sounded too old for her. Or maybe she was just like a lot of other girls that didn't like their names. I made a mental note to ask her about it when I found her.
I was getting a little tired of walking around, so I went into a little restaurant for lunch. I ordered in flawless Italian, much to the surprise of the waiter, and I ate with gusto, realizing that I hadn't eaten dinner the night before or breakfast. After I finished my food, I paid and then walked back out onto the street, which was still fairly crowded. It wasn't overly crowded, though. It was perfect. Actually, it was sort of like a pavement artists' dream. Matt had told me once that Italy was one of his top five favorite places to tail a target on foot.
I stopped at a little fountain and watched as the clear water rained down upon more water, creating a continuous ripple. I felt like that water below; like my life would never calm down enough that I could be still. I watched as other tourists and even some native Italians stopped at the fountain, too. I stood there among them, probably seeming completely normal to any outsider. But I wasn't normal. Not by a long shot.
Finally, I grew tired and I decided that I would go back to my room and do some research on my computer. But, I had barely turned around when something made me freeze. Something inside of me – my spy sense – told me to turn around.
When I did, I saw her. And I knew instantly that it was her. You don't forget the jaw that you've traced with your lips plenty of times before. I would never be able to forget her thin, athletic figure that I'd held close to my own body. And, as a trained operative, I could easily recognize the gait of another trained operative, even though Katelyn looked normal to everyone else.
So I did what any good operative would do.
I followed.